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Thursday, 7 April 2016

Who's flogging off NZ water

You'd have to be really observant (or glued to RNZ) to know. There was a brief item on the radio to say the Environment Canterbury (Transitional Arrangements Bill) was being passed under urgency.

In
the words of the government:

"This
bill establishes a mixed-model governance structure for the
Canterbury Regional Council (Environment Canterbury) during the
2016-2019 local government term, and will facilitate the continued
timely developmnent of a robust, clear, and effective framework for
the management of natural resources in Canterbury."

In
other words this keeps decision-making out of the hands of
democratically-elected representatives who might take decisions that
do not occord with the desire of the government to hand Canterbury’s
valuable water resources over to irrigation for dairy or to a Chinese
water bottling plant – or anyone else that might want to exploit
Canterbury’s resources for their own interests.

Heaven
forbid that the people of Canterbury have a say in how their
resources are used!

In Whakatane water is being flogged off to the Chinese market by Oravida's ex- NZ prime minister Jenny Shipley.

A
council in the drought-prone Canterbury plains is selling the right
to extract 40 billion litres of pure, artesian water to a bottled
water supplier.

The
Ashburton District Council is selling a section in its business
estate, known as Lot 9, for an undisclosed sum. It comes with a
valuable resource consent that allows abstraction of water from
aquifers beneath the town.

The
council has refused to publicise information about the deal, which is
understood to be with an overseas company.

It
has outraged some residents, who say water is desperately needed
locally.

The
area’s artesian water is increasingly popular in overseas markets
such as China, with its New Zealand origin often featuring in
branding and marketing.

The
consent allows the holder to take 45 litres of water a second from
local aquifers, totalling more than 1.4 billion litres a year.

It
expires in 2046, meaning the buyer will gain access to more than 40
billion litres of Ashburton’s pure water.